The council has raised the fare to be paid in car parks including at Dinton Pastures from Friday, January 15.

Visitors looking to park at Dinton Pastures for three and a half hours will soon have to pay £6 rather than £2.50.

Speaking on behalf of a friend, Helen Church has condemned the higher rates as "disgusting" and a "disgrace".

She said: "I'm stunned that you have raised them by so much. It will definitely stop me using the park with my so due to the lack of flexibility and increased cost.

"I will definitely not be going there to visit the café anymore after these price rises."

She also questioned why the council cannot introduce a system similar to the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead which allows residents to pay a reduced fee.

"I thought the parking charges were already hefty but was willing to pay them as the new park etc all has to be funded somehow. I definitely wont be going anymore. What a shame."

She said: "Wokingham Borough Council - you should be ashamed. It's not very encouraging to get people out doing gentle exercise.

"It'll have a knock on effect with obesity, GP surgeries, depression etc. It's well known that getting out and about helps with your health. It's a disgrace."

Cllr Angus Ross, executive member for environment, said: “We’ve looked very carefully to balance car park charges against the need to make country parks self-financing in the very difficult current financial climate.

“We also tried to match different types of users – the daily year-round dog or exercise walker compared to occasional summer longer visitors or trips to the children’s play area.

“So we have held the winter week-day hourly charge. For a family coming for a half or more summer day, a one-off £6 charge is very good value.

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“We also did some benchmarking which shows our charges fit well for the facilities and opportunities provided in our country parks.

“Season tickets are better value for regular daily users, and there is also a six month option for summer users. We’ve also retained concessionary rates.

“We want to enhance our country park facilities for local people, but their long-term maintenance needs ongoing funding and car park charges are the only major income source.

In these hard financial times council tax cannot stretch to subsidise them. Country parks must be self-financing.”